Question for the smokers out there. A pack of cigarettes is pushing $10 here, are people switching to the internet? A quick search found Marlboro's for about $15 a carton, but I don't know if those sites are legit. I assume they don't pay taxes.
Plenty people here in Austria "import" from Ex-Yugo (in our student dorm Kosovars would go from door to door with cartons).
Buying from Indian reserves is also a notoriously easy way to get around the tax in Canada.
$10 a pack? Damn, that's a lot, that used to be luxury cigarette prices.
IIRC, Ed used to bootleg cigarettes from KY to Ohio. Not as much a reason to do that now with KY's tax rising from $.30 to $1.00 a pack.
I would have to think there would be a good option somehow to buy them from Indian reservations via mail order. Anything that deprives the gubmint of its sin tax revenue is fine by me :)
Most of the smokers I know buy them from the Indian tribes. No taxes.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 20, 2009, 01:44:52 PM
Most of the smokers I know buy them from the Indian tribes. No taxes.
Ironically there is only one tiny Indian reservation in all of Texas. Smokers here = screwed.
Quote from: derspiess on May 20, 2009, 01:02:36 PM
IIRC, Ed used to bootleg cigarettes from KY to Ohio. Not as much a reason to do that now with KY's tax rising from $.30 to $1.00 a pack.
Long retired from that.
The big thing smokers are doing now is rolling their own.
Quote from: Valmy on May 20, 2009, 01:52:45 PM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 20, 2009, 01:44:52 PM
Most of the smokers I know buy them from the Indian tribes. No taxes.
Ironically there is only one tiny Indian reservation in all of Texas. Smokers here = screwed.
NY repealed the tax exempt status for Indian cigarettes here. I guess they could smuggle them in from other states.
But what about mail order cigarettes? A quick search finds places like www.verycheapcigarettes.com, though I have no idea how legit those are.
Quote from: Strix on May 20, 2009, 02:08:29 PM
Quote from: Valmy on May 20, 2009, 01:52:45 PM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 20, 2009, 01:44:52 PM
Most of the smokers I know buy them from the Indian tribes. No taxes.
Ironically there is only one tiny Indian reservation in all of Texas. Smokers here = screwed.
NY repealed the tax exempt status for Indian cigarettes here. I guess they could smuggle them in from other states.
I think it was because Turning Stone Casino was making a killing. Plus they and the Senecas started selling cartons online.
$15-$25 carton from the Six Nations.
as per the online discounters, I suspect they are tax dodging, much like the poker sites, with offshore virtual business addresses for admin, banking and billing. everything else about them is domestic.
When we drove up to Niagara Falls when I was a kid, my dad made us stop on the Onondaga Reservation so he could buy like 20 cartons of cigarettes. :rolleyes:
They had Playboys there and I tried to flip through them but this old Indian lady caught me and ratted me out to my mom. :ultra:
Quote from: Caliga on May 21, 2009, 07:38:16 AM
When we drove up to Niagara Falls when I was a kid, my dad made us stop on the Onondaga Reservation so he could buy like 20 cartons of cigarettes. :rolleyes:
They had Playboys there and I tried to flip through them but this old Indian lady caught me and ratted me out to my mom. :ultra:
You should have distracted her with some beads.
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 21, 2009, 08:02:59 AM
You should have distracted her with some beads.
I wanted to give her a "nice, warm" blanket. :menace:
Quote from: alfred russel on May 20, 2009, 02:27:00 PM
But what about mail order cigarettes? A quick search finds places like www.verycheapcigarettes.com, though I have no idea how legit those are.
I have no idea how legit their smokes are, either. The broken Engrish on this site makes me suspect these are some kind of knock-off smokes with fake labels.
We have seen your future already here in Norway.
I still fondly remember just having to pay 10 USD for a pack. It's between 11 and 14 USD nowadays. And you can only smoke in reservations in the mountains after being deloused.
Fortunately for you Americans, you don't have Albanians, Estonians, Lithuanians and assorted other newly-liberated/integrated into the wonderful world of entrepreneurial capitalism all too eager to supply the market of nicotine-craving Norwegians with few qualms about supporting organised crime. Unfortunately for you, you still have the Mob.
Quote from: grumbler on May 21, 2009, 11:14:34 AM
I have no idea how legit their smokes are, either. The broken Engrish on this site makes me suspect these are some kind of knock-off smokes with fake labels.
Gray market, if you're lucky.
Quote from: Vince on May 20, 2009, 02:28:19 PM
Quote from: Strix on May 20, 2009, 02:08:29 PM
Quote from: Valmy on May 20, 2009, 01:52:45 PM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on May 20, 2009, 01:44:52 PM
Most of the smokers I know buy them from the Indian tribes. No taxes.
Ironically there is only one tiny Indian reservation in all of Texas. Smokers here = screwed.
NY repealed the tax exempt status for Indian cigarettes here. I guess they could smuggle them in from other states.
I think it was because Turning Stone Casino was making a killing. Plus they and the Senecas started selling cartons online.
Probably the politicians got their hands on some figures showing how much in taxes they were losing out on.
On the plus side, it killed the cigarette black market in Rochester. Our Vietnamese population had to go back to selling just marijuana.